A Man/Machine Interface or MMI provides the television viewer with a means making it possible to consult information typically relating to the programs broadcast.
The information is transmitted by multiplexing appropriate data packets in the digital data stream. A designation often used for this type of data is “Service Information” (or more simply “SI”). In what follows, the term “service” will be used to refer to a series of programs (televised news bulletins, films, shows, etc.) under the supervision of one and the same program provider (“broadcaster” or “service provider”).
The service information is broadcast periodically by the service provider. This information describes, among other things, events in respect of a program of a service. These events are parameterized by their names, the service provider associated with them, etc.
It is common practice to associate, with each of the events, information or descriptors summarizing the content of these events, enabling the user to ascertain the general content of an event by selecting a specific topic from the electronic program guide (EPG) intended for displaying the summaries of events.
However, this information or these summary descriptors only advise as to the general content of the relevant event.
The aim of the invention is to remedy this problem.